Outshouting God Psalm 46

White Honda. White Honda. Morning everyone. Morning.

I got a call at Walford County to work on a toilet

for two hours. We're up to two worship leaders.

We're rocking the house. I hope she lets me pick

first because I really want the top one. Yes,

Arden with Molly Strayer. Arden is the shopper.

Good morning, gentlemen. Good morning to you.

Good morning, buddy. There they are. I have one

for you in my purse if you want it. You're Spider

-Man cats at my house. Spider -Man cats that

come from my house. Where's the other one? Did

you clean one? Did you clean one and see what

it's like? No, they're going to. Is it late at

night? I'm preparing myself for set. We'll be

right back. Most of the time those guys talk

trash. I know. There's so much fun. I can't do

masks before singing. That doesn't work for me.

No, you end up sucking the thing in your mouth

when you're trying to get air. Well, and it's

even more so before that. If I wear a mask, it

makes me start wheezing. And then if I try to

sing, I get issues. I feel you. I don't have

asthma and stuff. But yeah, I'm doing a work

order in an apartment. Some of these people keep

their apartments at 78 degrees and you're sweating.

I can't breathe. I've got to get out of there.

I can't imagine having asthma or something. The

only time the mask doesn't bother me at all is

when I'm outside when it's cold. Yeah. I usually

cover my mouth when it's really cold outside

anyway because the cold air isn't good for the

asthma either. But if I do it before singing,

it's just enough of a wheeze that if I start

trying to sing, it's... I'm choking on it. Even

the cold, the problem I have is it holds all

the moisture in here and my beard gets all wet.

And I don't have that particular problem. Oh,

Alicia must be here. I figured I could do Happy

Day by myself if I needed to. Well, and the two

of us could do it. I think Gary was asking. For

me, when I get to the chorus, I have to drop

the octave. It wouldn't be awful. It's in a good

range. Yeah, actually. It sounds different because

the verse is up high and then the chorus is up

low. Yeah. But not super low. Well, but right

now the verse is down low and the chorus is up

high, so, you know, whatever. It would be different,

but it wouldn't necessarily be bad. Yeah, it

is kind of written at low voice range, but I'll

take it on an octave when I sing it. Yeah, I...

I'm not sure that I can sing those verses. They're

a little bit dumb. And if it's just you, we might

throw our congregation a little bit, but nobody

else is going to know that you're changing stuff.

People modify notes all the time. Especially

if I'm singing down low. It's funny how somebody

can call out a high note and it has an E vowel

in it and they'll sing it as an A vowel. People

hear it as an E vowel because of the context

of it. That's why a lot of times you hear a song

and you don't know the words. You may not understand

it at first, but it eventually comes to you.

Foreigners trying to sing. I can't imagine trying

to sing in English when you're not good at speaking

it. Speaking in English is one thing. Singing

in English is so much more hard. Those that do

it well. I've heard some Japanese singers. I

had no idea any of the songs was in English.

The entire song was in English. Once you hear

it, though, then you get it. Thank you. and I

mentioned it again today, a ministry that we've

been partnering with, which is called Bless Every

Home, and I have passed out to almost everybody,

and if you didn't get one, I have one for you.

That is, if you receive, it does work off of

email, so you do need to have an email somehow

or other, and if you don't have one, we can easily

help you set one up. But basically, the form

that I passed out is you can set any username

you want. Please be respectful. You can set any

password you want, eight characters, and the

only persons that will have that password then

will be you and me. So no changes will take place

other than I'm going to add the church members

for you to do it. And then after I've done that,

you can change the password. I don't need to

have access after that. It's just so I can set

you up. And then it says, what days would you

like email reminders? So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You can do

up to seven days a week of email reminders to

pray. And what it's going to do is it's going

to give you the names and the addresses of the

people around where you live. And then once I'm

through with it, it will give you the names and

the addresses of everybody in the church. And

then you'll get a cycle. You'll get about five

names a day, whatever days you say. So if you

say, I want to get names Monday through Wednesday,

then every day. Monday you'll get five names,

Tuesday you'll get five names, Wednesday you'll

get five names, like that. It'll send you an

email with those five names and addresses. And

then it will also give you a little devotional.

So it's going to give you a Bible verse, or sometimes

it's up to like three Bible verses. Talk about

it briefly. Very, very briefly. Like I mean a

sentence. It's very brief. This is not going

to replace your daily quiet time or anything

like that. It's very, very brief. And then that

is designed to help you know like a sample prayer

that you can pray for those people. So if you

don't know, oh, and I pray for them. I don't

know. I just pray for health every time, or I

just pray for money every time. whatever, it'll

give you a sample prayer coming out of Scripture,

out of that verse, of what you can pray for them.

And then you pray. You can ignore that completely

and pray whatever God lays in your heart. Or

you can pray that and pray more. Pray for half

an hour for that. Or however you want to do it.

But it's designed to instigate and remind you

to pray. And then to give you a sample prayer

so you can do that. If you only do one day a

week, that's fine. So just one day a week, receiving

an email to remember to pray for a small set

of people. It's going to be roughly five people.

If you do 40 around your house, and you do one

day a week, it's going to take you eight weeks

to pray once for everybody around your house.

Once we add in 15, 20 more from the church, then

it would take you like 12 weeks. If you do one

day a week, five people, then it's going to take

you like 12 weeks. By that time, if you look

at every email, then you will have prayed for

everybody in the church and everybody that's

40 houses around your house. 10 or so, 10 to

12 weeks, something like that. And at the bottom

it does ask you for your email address. That's

where you're going to get those reminders sent

to you. They do not send out text reminders.

They do not get your cell phone number. And then

at the bottom it says, the very bottom it says,

how many households would you like to pray for

to start? Now I put 40, 60, or 80 there. You

just circle the one you want. But if you want

to do more, you can do more. You'll have to go

on the website once you're signed up. You can

set those numbers much higher. They go as high

as like 200. But if you do 200 and you only do

one day a week, you're not going to get through

them all until almost a year. Especially after

you add in the ones from New Heights and like

that. So just be aware of that. But if you do

five days a week and you do 40, then every couple

of weeks you will have prayed for everybody on

your list. On the website then, which is a very

simple mechanic, you'll get an email and it'll

say, go to the website or pray from this email.

If you pray from the email and you click on done

when you're done, it will record that you prayed

for that. And it's just going to, how many times?

And then later, if you want to, you can go into

the website and it'll tell you how many times

you've prayed for each of the names on your list.

So you click on the little circle that looks

like praying hands and it'll say, you've prayed

for this house five times or you've prayed for

this house 21 times or whatever based on what

you told it. Then it also has on there, Care,

which means you've met that person, you know

that person, you've maybe bought them a gift,

or you've said a kind word, or you've done some

act of care toward them. And you can click that.

That's optional, but you can click that every

time you do an act of care toward them, and it'll

track it. And then it has share, meaning you

shared the gospel with them. You told them about

Jesus. And you can click that every time you

tell them about Jesus, or if you give them a

track, or anything like that. And then the last

one says disciple. And you click that if you

know that they have become a Christian. Not necessarily

led to become a Christian by you. If you have

a neighborhood, if you're praying for your neighborhood,

if you're a three -house adoptee, you know there's

a guy who claims to be a Christian, he professes

to be a Christian, and you can click that box.

So once you're signed up, you give me this paperback,

I can sign you up. You can go on and sign yourself

up. You don't technically need me to do that.

The only real advantage that you're going to

get out of this is two -fold. One, I'm going

to know that you're signed up, so then I can

help. I can take the next step. And two, I'm

going to enter the church family names for you.

So I'm going to make sure you have on your list

the people from the church. Otherwise, you would

have to do that work yourself. And I've got some

people who are going to help me do it. So we're

willing to do that for you. So if you go ahead

and get signed up, just fill this piece of paper

out, just like it says. Get it back to me and

I'll sign you up. You'll get your first email.

Once you get your first email, you can click

from the email saying you're done praying or

you can click into the website and look around

and see what's there. And it's all free. And

again, they don't get, they're not going to send

you. I've been doing this for almost two years.

I tested it out because, you know, I don't trust

sometimes getting my email address. I've been

doing this for almost two years and I've never

gotten a junk email from them. You know, I've

never even gotten another email other than a

reminder to pray. They've never even sent me

something and said, hey, sign up for our other

services, because they don't have any as far

as I know. So you're not doing that. It's not

that kind of thing. I've tested it for a long

time. And then they don't have your cell phone

number, so they're never going to call you like

that. So this is a free service that's partnering

with us. Okay, that was one. Second thing is,

I have these books that I bought to give as a

gift to every household. What these books are,

it's called A Journey Through Luke's Gospel for

the Whole Family. Okay? So now obviously if you're

single, it's okay. You're not leaving anything

out. You definitely want to do it still. It would

be great learning it. But if you happen to have

kids in your house or if you happen to have a

desire to explore the scriptures from different

angles and think on it like a kid might think

or if you happen to have maybe a believer in

your house that's a little less advanced, mature,

like that, what it does is when you do the devotional,

Each time, like the first devotional says, it's

day one, leaving it all behind. It starts on

day 11. So when you do it, and you go to page

11, when you do it, there's just a simple devotional

of like a page, and the main part of the devotional

goes on for really two pages. But then it has

questions built into it for different age groups.

So if your family wants to do this devotional,

As a couple with a child or whatever, it says,

for example, there's two questions for all, so

everybody can think about those questions. And

then it says questions for threes and fours.

So if you have a three - or four -year -old in

your house, then you could ask that question,

which is the question in this one is, what did

Levi do when Jesus said, follow me? So that's

the question for threes and fours, right? And,

of course, you read the story, so they should

be able to answer that question. The question

provides the sevens. What did Levi take with

him as he went to follow Jesus? And then question

for over sevens, which is older kids, basically.

Why would Levi or you leave everything to follow

someone? And then question for teens. You make

choices each day about who to follow, who to

be with, who to listen to, who to imitate. How

do you make those decisions? What is it about?

Jesus that has attracted you to following him

or what would Jesus need to be like for you or

your friends to choose to follow him? So basically

each question is a little bit more advanced.

There are 34 devotionals and it works through

the book of Luke. It does not cover the whole

book of Luke. It's all focused around the meals

that Jesus had and the time that he spent with

his disciples and non -disciples over those meals.

So it's a great thing to do at mealtime. Right?

And it's easy to remember. Because in real time,

I can spend three minutes in the Word. And I

bought enough copies of these for every household

to have one today. And so, Jason, do you want

to help me pass it out? Okay. We're going to

go around and give one to you. Make sure we get

one for our household, if you will, so I don't

overstep. And that concludes. There we go. Brand

new, out of the plastic. You never had a book

brand new out of the plastic? Now you do. I got

it. I got it in there. While he's doing that,

I have one last thing for you. It is a questionnaire.

It's not something you're going to do right now,

but it looks like this. It is a one -page questionnaire.

I'm going to tell you right now, this questionnaire

is an act of love so that other people can act

in love. That is the goal. What we're doing is...

We want you to go through this and fill out the

questionnaire as completely as you are willing

and able to do. And it's going to ask you questions

like your name and address and your phone number.

And then I'm not going to sell these, I promise,

and your email address. It asks you, do you use

social media, yes or no? So you don't have to

put, yeah, my Twitter account is, or my Facebook

account is, or whatever. I still have some because

I know there are some people that aren't here.

Okay? And then it asks you, what is your birthday?

But then it's going to get into things about

you specifically. What are your spiritual gifts

if you know them? What is your favorite color?

What is your favorite entree, meal entree, or

favorite entree? If you want to list more, there's

only so much space, but you can add more on the

back and I can put a note about that. Favorite

snacks, favorite shows. How do you like to fellowship

with other believers? Things you like to do with

other believers. And I put study, private, visit,

workshop, worship, shop, movie, sport. You can

mark all, any of those apply. And then there's

an other at the end. You can write in more if

you want. Do you like to read? What is your favorite

genre? So the idea behind this is that when we

want to love on each other, then this information

is available. So when I want to buy you a gift,

and let me tell you, I want to buy you a gift.

That is my goal this year. I'm buying everybody

gifts as often as I possibly can. The sermon

that I preached at the end of last year and going

into this year, I feel like God really convicted

me that we blow it when it comes to worship as

far as acts of love and gifts and things like

that. We try to cram it all into Christmas and

Christmas time, if you will. I'm not going to

do that anymore. So, you fill this questionnaire

out as completely as you're willing and able

to do and then give it back to me. Then we will...

When someone wants to do an act of giving towards

you or a kind act or something like that, they

can have this information to do that. It would

limit to the church. So we're not going to have

people outside the church filling out questionnaires,

at least not initially. We're not going to ask

anybody to do that. If somebody voluntarily wanted

to do it, fine. And then we're not going to distribute

this. If there's somebody who's outside the church

and they want this information, they can't have

it. I'm not going to give it to them, and you're

not going to give it to them. You won't have

access to anybody unless you've loved on them.

That's the only way you would have access. So

basically it would go like this. Pastor Dan,

I want to buy a gift for so -and -so. Can you

give me some ideas from their sheet? And I might

just take off the snippet that they're looking

for and give it to them. And if somebody wants

to authorize the whole sheet, go into everybody

and make a book out of it and everybody can see

everybody's sheets, I don't mind that, but I'm

not doing that initially. We're going to get

the information that's going to be available

that they need to love on other people. Some

of it should be public knowledge, your spiritual

gifts. Everybody should know what your spiritual

gifts are. If you aren't acting out enough and

telling everybody, then that's got to be coming,

okay? And things like that. This is an act of

love so that other people can love on you. That

is the point. If you refuse this, if you will

not do this, then you are refusing to do an act

of love toward other people who later want to

come and love on you. Now, you say, well, they

can come and ask me. It's extremely inefficient

for seven or ten people to come and ask you what

your favorite snacks are, what's your favorite

meal entree, what's your favorite dessert. But

if you just fill this paper out one time, that's

five minutes, maybe ten minutes at most of your

time. And then after that, the church, myself,

and the administrative people in the church will

circulate what information is necessary to make

sure that people can do it. So that's kind of

what it's about. And I felt very allowed and

rewarded to do that. And there are sheets here.

If you don't already have one, I have one for

everybody that's here. If you come around and

you already have one, just let Jason know you

already have one. Or I'll put one by yourself.

Yes, and that is children as well. If they don't

have an email address, they don't have a phone

number, put your phone number, whatever. I would

like it to be every church member. Some people

are, like me, not administratively inclined.

If I get down to, like, there's five or ten church

members, I will probably come and hunt you down

and say, can we fill this out real quick? It

really is only five to ten minutes. I did it.

It's not that hard. I wrote the whole thing in

less time than that, and so I guarantee you it's

not that hard to fill it out that fast. Okay?

And then, again, once it's in place, anybody

that's in place, we're going to come up with

creative ways to use it and for people to love

on each other. Okay? All right. I know that was

a lot, but I've been feeling moved to do certain

things that I think we've been kind of missing

the boat on, and I gave it to you. I will make

an announcement real quick. There is a team leader

meeting today. So a little while after service

in the cafeteria, after a few while we can't

go to the bathroom, we'll meet for the team leader

meeting. And there's some cool stuff. We're going

to talk a little bit about this stuff. There's

some cool stuff on that agenda. So even if you're

not a team leader, if you're interested in what's

going on, you want to sit in, you're welcome

to do that and hear. and maybe even give input,

okay? If the team leaders have to vote on something,

then the only team leaders and coordinators and

deacons and pastors in the room will vote. But

other than that, everybody is welcome to participate

in that meeting. Okay? All right. That was a

lot, I know. And I thank you for your patience.

And we're going to pray now, and then we're going

to jump back into worship. Okay? Did I miss any

announcements? Okay, awesome. Thank you for letting

me monopolize some of that time and give you

a gift or two. I hope spark us getting started

loving one another in new ways. Now let's ask

God that you did just that, okay? Father in heaven,

you are an awesome God. You are a giving God.

And we could list the many things that we've

been given. You are an awesome God and you are

a healing God. And we each could list the many

times that we have been healed or affected in

our bodies and our minds and brought out of difficult

circumstances. Lord, you are a... providing God,

and we could go through our finances and go,

well, there's this and there's that, and this

mistake happened, that mistake happened, but

God took care of this and God took care of that,

and I've had what I needed. And you can even

look at the times in our life where we didn't

have what we needed and realize that you were

working to show us something, to grow us, to

move us forward. There are people that don't

have what they need right now. If there's somebody

in this room who doesn't have what they need

right now, Lord, I pray that they would speak

up and let it be known and we would not leave

this place without this body having what it needs

because we generally do have what we need. You've

taken care of us. Lord, we confess to you that

we are, even in our love for one another, even

in our brother and sisterhood and the little

ones, Lord, that we are too close, too disconnected.

Two outside each other's inner circle. And Lord,

I'm asking you for a new love and a new intimacy

that blossoms here and grows like crazy and then

reaches out and becomes infectious. And then

it fills other churches. And it fills the neighborhood.

And it fills our neighborhoods. And I pray, Lord,

that we will one and all be faithful to pray

for people who live around us and for other church

members. That we'll light up the map. with homes

that we've prayed for, shared the gospel to,

and that we know are believers. That we'll begin

to sort out, not sort out like we're trying to

cast anyone out, but sort out like we can focus

on who to love on and who to reach to and who

to testimony and witness to and who to evangelize

and, Lord, just make it all possible. We're living

in a crazy day with violence in certain places

and lack and suffering and evil that... has spread

and it's kind of insidious and it's creeping

and then sometimes it blows up in the light and

everybody can see it and it's terrified some

people. And Lord, we know that we ought not to

be terrified for you are on our side. And we

just ask you to give us then the strength and

the endurance and the faithfulness to worship

you now as you ought to be worshipped. And that's

a high bar for us. That's really something to

reach for. Even though we are blessed with the

instruments and blessed with the place and blessed

with time and blessed with people and blessed

with salvation and blessed with your Holy Spirit

and the list just goes on. Blessed. It might

be a challenge for some to truly give you the

respect that you deserve. Probably a challenge

for all of us because the respect you deserve

is probably beyond what we understand. And so

we're asking you now to inhabit the praise of

your people and take over this time and lead

us from here to the throne of grace. And we pray

it in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, I need children

up front and everybody else to stand up. Come

on. Unless you can figure out how to make that

work. You know these motions, I promise. Who's

got what? What have you read this week? What

have you seen? What do you got? Anybody seen

anything in the scripture this week? Okay, let's

take a second. What do you think about that for

a second? If you notice on the screen, the January

memory verse. So it is the number one, the first.

memory verse for the year 2021 uh the latter

half of last year we didn't do as well putting

up memory verses every week but we've added a

lot of new things to what we did and so some

of that replaced that now we're back to this

and so this is matthew 24 35 and it's a kind

of a little bit slightly simplified version it

says heaven and earth will pass away but my or

just pass but my words will not pass away and

so you may think um A lot of times we look around

at things around us and we think, well, that's

pretty much permanent. That's going to be in

my life the whole time. It could be an illness.

It could be the job you work at. It could be

a vehicle that you intend to make last a real

long time or a relationship. You got married.

That should be for your whole life. But this

verse reminds us that heaven and earth, all the

heavens as they currently are, and all the earth

as it currently is, will pass away. So you literally

cannot become permanently attached to anything.

God will create a new heaven and earth, a new

earth, a new heaven and earth that will come

at that latter day, and that's it. And you'll

either be in the new heaven and the new earth,

or you'll be not in the new heaven and the new

earth. And people have asked me before, say,

you know, can you travel between heaven and earth

then? And I would say the answer is yes. In fact,

I think we'll have that new resurrected body

disappear in one place, disappear in another

place. I think there won't even be any transport

time. No more mailing time. No more flight time.

Just disappear in one place, disappear in another

place. That would be awesome if that's the way

it would actually work, which is my best understanding.

But heaven and earth will pass, will go away.

It's all gone. It's all gone. No matter what

you're saving now, no matter what you're storing

up for yourself on earth now, even if the thief

does not break in and steal, and even if the

hawk does not break in and rust or destroy, even

if it doesn't decay away on this earth, it will

go away once and for all, permanently, when God

creates the new heaven and the new earth. Heaven

and earth will pass away. But my words, that

is the word of God, every word that cometh out

of the mouth of God, will not pass. Shall not

pass. Will not pass. Okay. So that's our memory

verse for the month of January. It isn't really

even that hard. Is it? It's just two pieces.

It is heaven and earth will pass, but my words

will not pass. It has a little bit of a ring

to it. Heaven and earth will pass. but my words

will not pass away. Heaven and earth will pass,

but my words will not pass away. John, can you

take it off the screen? Okay, now who can say

it from memory? Good enough. Yep, well, it's

not passed. Jason? Heaven and earth will pass,

but my words will not pass away. Perfect. Okay,

anybody else? Heaven and earth will pass, but

my words will not pass away. It's not that hard.

Who can name the reference from memory? Matthew

24 -35. 24 -35, yeah, just one verse, Matthew

24 -35. Okay, so that was the very verse, and

it gave you a little bit more time to think.

If you don't have something, I confess I had

something. In fact, I've been dwelling on it

for like the last day and a half. But it's a

YouTube video, and I didn't bring it today because

I thought, well, we'll have other things. And

so I was kind of trusting y 'all saw something

this week. But it's okay. We'll pray and thank

God for speaking, and then we'll go back to worship.

We've talked a lot already. Anybody got something?

Going once? Going twice? Okay, I'm going to ask

my son, Arden. Arden, if you pray for us, remember

we're going to tithes and offerings and interlateral

worship, and then we'll transition. Even in a

time like this, we gather here every week to

worship you, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Thank you for protection. And though the world

may seem like it's falling apart at the moment,

thank you that you still always feel like you're

there. I pray that you would bless the tithes

and offering that we'll take today, and that

it would be of good use in your kingdom. Thank

you. that more often than not, when, and I think

it's largely our praise team, but I think when

the Lord is leading in the worship and there's

the spirit is moving, feels like I can feel God

working on me. I mean, not emotionally or physically,

but I just like something in my soul that I totally

forget what I'm about to preach. And then I just

was walking up here and I'm going like, I can't

remember anything about the sermon. And then

I opened the book and I'm like, oh yeah, that's

right. So it all came flooding back. Praise the

Lord. That's where we are. So today's sermon,

is entitled, Outshouting God. Outshouting. I

don't think that's a word. I made it up, I'm

pretty sure. But I kind of like it. Outshouting.

But I guess outshouting would be a different

thing. That would be like if you're out in the

field shouting, that would be outshouting. So

this is outshouting. I don't know, maybe there

should be a dash or something. But anyway, outshouting

God. And we're going to see in the text that

we're going to read today, one roar versus another

roar. One roar versus another roar. Let me begin

by giving you a little bit of an illustration.

When I was younger, I guess I was probably about

13, 14 years old. There used to be, it's not

there anymore, praise God, because some men and

myself got together and we sort of renovated

that part of my house. Brother Tony led the way

and we fixed it. It had some structural, it had

some issues. Anyway, so you used to go through

the front door where the window is next to the

gas meter. There used to be a front door there.

And you'd go straight down a long hallway utility

room. And on the right half, you'd first pass

the furnace and the water softener, which we

have a water softener still, but it doesn't work.

But anyway, the furnace. And then you'd pass

the laundry. And then there was a bathroom that

I had built, which we affectionately called the

throne. Not because people call toilets thrones,

but because I built this bathroom, and when I

built it, I couldn't break up the concrete floor

to put it in. I didn't know how to do that. So

I built it up on a pedestal that was like two

foot tall. So to go to the bathroom, you had

to step up a foot and then walk up a slight slope,

and then you could sit down to go to the bathroom.

And it had a shower curtain around it. It didn't

have walls. And so it was moderately comical.

And then you'd go a little further, and I'd take

it back. The laundry was actually after that.

And then there was the door, which is now...

the door to our bathroom. And so then that back

room was back there, which is now partly our

bedroom, partly our honest bedroom, and we added

some onto it when we got rid of the garage. So

anyway, you'd walk this long, straight hallway,

and there were two lights. There was one light

in the front, still there now, and there was

one light in the back by the laundry room. The

light in the back by the laundry room was one

of those two -way switches. You know, if you've

turned this one on, then you can turn this one

off, but when you come back, you've got to turn

the one that you turned off, you've got to turn

that one on, and then go to the other end and

turn off. It was ideal so you could walk through

the long space, flip the light switch on, walk

through the long space, flip the light switch

off. Then you're coming back, you turn the light

switch on, walk through the long space, flip

the light. But if you do it the other way, it

doesn't work. So if you go through without the

light, then when you come back, you have to go

through without the light and vice versa. So

I don't know how he had it wired or whatever,

but that's the way it worked. And I think the

one on our stairway is the same way. So on the

one going upstairs. So more often than not, I

would be walking that long stretch of hall in

the dark. On the left side was a set of shelves

that my dad had built. And basically it was just

really just one by sixes. Didn't even have a

lip on or anything, but we were all the way along.

They were like 18 feet long and just canned goods

on there. And that was their pantry. And so walking

along, canned goods on the right, the throne

on the left, the throne on the right, followed

by the laundry. And I'm walking through there.

And my brother decides to get crazy. And it just

occurred to me that the throne was not actually

there when this event happened. I'm blending

tooth and time. But anyway, the point is, I'm

walking down that dark hallway, and my brother

decided to get up in my face. And so he steps

out of the darkness, and he yells at me. And

he just says, ah! Like that, right? Like boo,

basically, but a kid version. And so he goes,

ah! And then we're in the dark. And it scared

me, so I yelled back. I go, ah! And he yelled,

and that scared him because he didn't expect

me to yell so loud. And he goes, ah! And then

I yelled, ah! And pretty soon we stopped, and

we all looked at each other, and we both looked

at each other and kind of laughed and chuckled

and whatever. But the point is, I guess I ask

myself, why is it that when you're startled,

you yell? Some people go to punching. It depends

on kind of how you're conditioned. I did that

a lot once I got older, probably because I had

a lot of those situations in my life. And then

if you jump out and you yell at somebody, why

would you expect them to be surprised and at

least make a loud noise or maybe punch you or

something? If you're going to startle them, why

would you expect them to be startled back? I

want you to bear that situation in mind then

as we look at the scripture today. And if you

are excited about the word of God and what God

can do in your life, what God can do in the lives

of this country and yet in the world through...

his teachings, which will not pass away, though

all heaven and earth do, his teachings will not

pass away, then maybe give me a little bit of

a hoot, a holler, amen, or maybe yell like you

were startled, or yell like you want to startle

somebody, as we go to Psalm chapter 46. Okay,

Psalms 46 · chapter mention

now I said chapter, but technically it's not

a chapter. I understand that. You all understand

that, right? It's section 46. It is Psalm 46.

It is the song or prayer that is in number 46,

the book Psalms. God, the refuge of his people.

For the choir director, a psalm of the sons of

Korah set to Alamoth a song. That's interesting,

bro. Tim, I don't know if you know this or not.

You might be interested in it. Alicia, Molly,

any musical singer type peoples. That the best

estimation of that term where it says set to

Alamoth probably meant that it was meant for

sopranos. That the music was set to higher, I

don't know how that works, a higher pitch set

for sopranos. But we don't actually know the

terms. They're ancient. and they are not inspired

of God, and they were not protected like the

words were of the text. So we're not positive,

but 70 -80 % of the people think that that means

that this psalm that we're about to read was

written for sopranos, which may be kind of symbolic

when you think about it. Alright, here we go.

This is the beginning of verse 1. Interestingly

enough, I was 90 % done with my sermon, and I

got a little pop -up on my note that yesterday

or today, whichever one it was, memory verse

of the day for new version for the Bible app.

was this first verse, Psalm 46 .1. And it says,

God is our refuge and strength, a very present

help in trouble. And so God is right here pictured,

it sounds like three ways, but I submit to you

it's really just kind of like two ways. He's

our refuge, meaning he's our protector, our shelter.

I read a story about a man and a boy. that they

would always go over their Christmas break when

they were at his grandparents' and they would

go down to the river or pond or whatever was

there and they would fish. And they had a particularly

bad winter going on and the boy thought they

probably wouldn't go. And he went to his dad

and he said, are we still going to go down there?

Because they usually cut a hole in the ice or

whatever or if it wasn't frozen over they would

fish there. And his dad said, yeah, I think we're

still going to go. And so then the next morning,

they got up early and they got all their stuff

together and they walked down through the snow

and the wind and it was terrible. I mean, like

halfway there, you thought, I'm going to freeze

to death before I ever get to the water, right?

And finally they get there, the boy and his dad,

and right next to the stream or the pond, as

his dad well knew, there was a huge rock. And

so they built a fire up next to this rock. His

dad gathered wood and whatever. brought the stuff,

I assume, to make a fire, and he built a fire

up next to a rock, and the rock protected them

from the wind, and they fished just like they

would otherwise. That is the perfect picture

of what it is talking about. God is your refuge.

Notice that it does not say that God takes you

out of struggle or trouble or that God puts you

a place that's warm when everybody else is cold.

It does not say that. It says that he is your

refuge. It doesn't say that here, anyway, that

he is like our castle or our house or our temple

or our building or walls built around us. It

doesn't say you have a roof. A refuge is a place

that you go in the midst of trouble and you get

some protection. You get the ability to survive.

So if you're ever in a very cold environment,

like an icy environment, a snowy environment,

whatever, and you're stranded out in the cold

weather, they tell you to bury yourself in the

snow. Now that seems counterintuitive, because

it's stinking cold. Snow is cold. I don't want

to touch snow when I'm cold. But actually, snow

traps the heat in, and you can actually make

yourself a little den and get down in the snow,

and you can't start a fire in there, but you

can stay warm from the wind. The wind chill factor

is the worst part, and so on. And that is a refuge.

You've heard of an igloo. An igloo is largely

a refuge. But actually, those who build igloos,

which we don't hear all that much about them

anymore, but those who build igloos are so good

at building them that they build them to be more

than refuges. They build them up to be safe places

where they can actually have a fire, where they

can actually cook, they can actually do their

work. But a refuge is a shelter in the midst

of difficulty. That's what a refuge really is.

And he is our strength. And this word here means

that God is the strength that flows through us.

He is the one that gives us the ability to do

the things that we do. Jesus would later say,

you can't do anything without me, basically,

and I'm paraphrasing that, obviously. God is

our refuge and strength. And then he says, a

very present help in trouble. And it sounds like

that's a third thing. Like, okay, if I'm in difficulty,

and then I might find a refuge, because God is

my refuge, but also God might... Do something

to help me out of that situation, like transplant

me to somewhere warmer, or help me find somebody

to take me home, that kind of thing. But I submit

to you that in the greatest times of trouble,

you need two things. You need refuge. You need

the ability to persist. Something to keep you

going. Something to keep you protected. To persevere.

And you need strength to do what you've got to

do. The truth is, if you have enough strength,

you don't need all that much refuge. But when

you're overcome, By something that is greater

than whatever strength you already possess, you

need refuge. And out of that refuge, sometimes

you gather the strength to do what you have.

You can build yourself a shelter and then the

next day get up and walk to where you need to

be, for example. God is our refuge and our strength.

He is a very present help in trouble. Notice

that phrase, very present. God is our refuge

and strength and He is right ready. He is right

now ready. He is already ready. He is with you

ready. in the face of difficulty. He is our refuge

and our strength. Verse 2 says, Therefore we

will not fear. So if God, the God of the universe,

the creator God, the one who saved your soul,

and if you do know that he saved your soul, then

you know the power that he possesses to cleanse

a soul, and that alone is something significant,

and you know that he has that kind of power,

and he is with you, then what the heck are you

afraid of? But what do we see in the world? We

see lots and lots of people, including professing

Christians, afraid of this, afraid of that. I'm

afraid of what they'll think. I'm afraid of what

I'll say. I'm afraid of what I'll do. I'm afraid

I might slip. I'm afraid she won't like me. I'm

afraid he won't give me money. I'm afraid the

deal won't go through. I'm afraid it'll break.

I mean, it's constantly, all day long, most people

are more motivated by fearing a possible negative

outcome and therefore working for their happiness

to try to stop that possible negative outcome,

then they are building something. It's like,

I'm trying to save up the money so I can buy

a house somebody else built. And then Stuart,

for example, Sherry's grandfather, his lifelong

dream, which he never fulfilled his lifelong

dream in this aspect, was to buy a cabin kit

and build his own house. But if he had started

building his own house when he first had the

dream, he would have eventually built that house.

But he did buy a very nice house and he did build

a very nice garage and he renovated a nice car

and he did other things that he wanted to do.

I'm not saying he made a mistake. What I'm saying

is, if you want to build something, then you

build it. And if something opposes you building

it, what do you do? Build it. So what? I'm not

trying to be snotty or nasty or mean to anybody.

If somebody doesn't like what you're doing for

God, do it anyway. It doesn't matter. That could

be the person that loves you the most, but they're

stepping up because the enemy wants to try to

stop you from doing what you're supposed to be

doing. Do what you're supposed to be doing, and

it'll build something. It'll turn into something.

We must not fear because God is right there.

God is ever -present help in trouble, a refuge,

a shelter for if things go wrong, strength to

persist and continue on. Therefore, we will not

fear, though... The earth should change. Now,

there's a really interesting word here that kind

of comes out in the Hebrew, and it basically

means chaos. Are you familiar with the idea of

chaos? Chaos goes every which direction all the

time. It doesn't stabilize. It doesn't simplify.

It doesn't have a solid base. Chaos is when people

are going all over the place all the time. If

you've ever been in your house and you've had

four or five children all in the living room

at the same time or you visited somebody else's

house and four or five children all at the same

time, if you sit back for a second and try to

be calm and just watch what's going on, what

you will see gets close to but is not chaos.

It was a joke when I was back at Pizza Hut. We

would start our shift. By about dinner time,

things would be completely out of control. You

didn't know how many times the phone was going

to ring. You didn't know how thick the stack

of tickets on the floor was going to get. You

didn't know how long the drive times were going

to become or how long it was going to be. We

had to tell people an hour and a half, two hours.

We'd tell people two hours for pizza and they'd

still order. Wouldn't bat an eye. And sometimes

we'd get it to them a lot faster than that. And

then sometimes we'd get it to them a lot faster

than that and they wouldn't be home. So you had

no idea what was going to happen in the meantime.

But at the end, it always came down to locking

the door, cleaning the restaurant. writing the

deposit, cleaning out the safe, polishing everything,

stocking everything, putting everything away.

It always came down to the same thing. And so

we called it controlled chaos because you knew

where you began and you know where you end. Are

you a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? Then

you know where you began. Do you know where you're

going when you die? Then you know where you end.

In the middle is controlled chaos. So when we

look at the world, sometimes this is what we

see. The earth develops into chaos. That's what

the phrase... probably could be easily translated

there as, even though the earth develops into

chaos, we will not fear. And it says, and though

the mountains slip into the heart of the sea,

which is a perfect image of what chaos is, the

big strong things that are in life, that everybody

says, well that'll be fine, that'll always be

there, nothing's going to happen to that. Even

if those things would slip into the heart of

the sea, pardon me, if they would go away out

of our sight. The things that we were depending

on, that we thought would always be stable, if

they would go away, we will not fear. Verse 3.

Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains

quake at its swelling pride. And that's talking

about the sea, of course. And so the sea, I don't

know if you ever thought about this, but in this

earth, the sea is one of the things that pretty

easily can overcome a man. If you're dropped

about two miles offshore, you'll die. Bottom

line. Unless somebody picks you up or you find

a way out, most people cannot swim two miles

in waves. And believe it or not, even though

the ocean might be fairly warm to touch, you

will develop hypothermia. You'll have a hard

time. People have tried to swim relatively long

lengths, and they literally do lasting permanent

damage to their bodies to try to do so. It's

20 miles, I think it is, across the English Channel,

and a couple of people have managed to swim that,

I think, now. But thousands or tens of thousands

have failed in trying. People died in the English

Channel. because 10 miles from solid land where

they would have been fine forever because their

ship sank or because there was a military battle

and they were thrown overboard or because it

was a storm and they fell off or whatever. People

died just a little ways out to sea. And now we

have the sea, and this picture is the sea coming

after the land, right? Roar and foam. And again,

that image of foam there is chaos. Do you ever

watch white water when a river races down? It

goes over the rocks. Why does the water turn

white when it goes over the rocks? Does anybody

know? Scientists in the room? Do you know why?

Yep, air bubbles is one main reason. There's

only one other reason. Water flows, and when

all the water is flowing the same direction,

light passes through it. In fact, if it stabilizes

in its flight, it could be passing you at 50

miles an hour. But if it's stable in its passage,

it'll be clear as glass. Unless there's impurities

in it. You can look right through. If you watch

a water pipe that's clear, they used to have

them down at Kosai, a clear water pipe that's

full of water. And the water could be traveling

through that pipe at 10, 20, 30 miles an hour

and it's clear. Completely clear. If you aerate

it, the bubbles will appear. But it won't really

become white because of that. When it becomes

white is when it's going in all different directions

and clashing with itself. So the light that's

coming from the sun bounces off. hundreds or

thousands of different surfaces instead of just

one smooth surface or instead of being able to

pass through. And it becomes opaque and water

begins to look like foam. The psalmist is pointing

out to us that things will happen in the world

that look crazy, chaotic, and they'll show up,

right? They'll become opaque. You can't see past

them. You have a hard time accepting them. They

will shake you like the sea coming for you. It's

waters. Roar? That's loud. We went down to Puerto

Rico way back in the day for Sherry's work. And

while we were there, we visited a castle. And

on the end, the castle was built on the end of

the island where it comes to a point. And the

water would come. And every time the water waves

would come, they would shoot 60 feet in the air.

Now, you look out at the ocean. It looked relatively

smooth. The waves were 5, 10 feet. And then they

would come and they would hit that. And the force

of it would shoot up in the air like 60 feet.

And it would go, Roar! Really loud, like so loud,

no one could talk. Like here comes a wave. Wait

a second. Okay, now here's what I was saying.

Because the roar was so immense. And what he's

saying is that this happens, that things in the

world happen, that the roar and the foam become

about all you can see or do or deal with. And

I submit to you that in those moments in time,

you need a refuge. And you need strength. And

God is there for you in ever -present help. And

therefore, we will not fear under those circumstances.

It says, though the mountains quake at the swelling

pride. In other words, if the ocean comes, the

solidest things, the biggest, strongest things

that no one would think that would ever go away,

though they shake when the ocean does what it's

doing or the sea does what it's doing, they shake

like they might literally just crumble. Still,

we will not fear. For there is a river whose

streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling

places of the Most High. Now, the psalmist may

have been foreshadowing, talking about the river

that runs through heaven. There was no river

in Jerusalem. And so to talk about Zion or Jerusalem

that way, it obviously was not talking about

that. There was no river. In fact, they would

have loved to have had a river. They would have

saved tens of thousands of lives during wartime

if they had a river. They didn't. But there is

a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

It's a river of supply and provision. That make

glad the city of God. The holy dwelling places

of the Most High. God present, all is well. Verse

5. God is in the midst of her. She will not be

moved. You realize how stupid anyone would have

to be if God Himself were standing with you in

the midst of trouble and God stands and you run.

How dumb is that? When they captured the Ark

of the Covenant, when the Philistines captured

the Ark of the Covenant, the Israelites were

in full retreat. They took the Ark of the Covenant

out there because, of course, if God is with

us, if the footstool of God is on the battlefield,

we cannot possibly lose. That was their thought.

But the problem is they had already run away

from God. They were already not living for God.

They were already not faithful. They were evil,

essentially. And so then they were being routed

in battle. And they ran away and the Philistines

captured the Ark of the Covenant. And then starts

this huge episode before the Ark of the Covenant

finally returns home of all the people that suffer

under the tender ministrations of God's presence.

The enemies of God who fell, died, were diseased,

were in horrible shape. The cities of the Philistines,

I think there were five of them or ten of them.

Ten, I think. And they were all wracked with

horrible disease and everything else because

the Ark of the Covenant was there. So what did

they do? They sent it back and they inquired

of the wise men how to send it back and they

sent it back with golden tumors and golden rats

in it to represent the disease and the rats that

had struck them while God's people didn't have

the Ark of the Covenant and the Philistines had

it instead. And they sent it back on two cows,

pulled by two cows, whose babies, fresh born

babies, were left at home to prove that the cows

would do God's will and take it to where it belonged.

Because it's the Ark of the Covenant and it's

the presence of God. If you have the presence

of God in you, you can't retreat. You can't fall

back off of what God is doing. You can't be fearful.

God is God. If whatever is in you, whoever is

in you, leads you to a place of fear and doubt

and not wanting to do what God wants you to do,

then whatever is in you, whoever is in you, is

not God. Because God is your refuge and strength

and ever -present help in time of trouble. God

is in the midst of her. She will not be moved.

And that moved is like shaken, broken down, settling

to lower base, searching for somewhere solid.

Will not be moved. God will help her when morning

dawns. And this is a trouble for translators.

This phrase here, when morning dawns, is difficult

to translate because it's a Hebrew colloquialism.

If you know what a colloquialism is, it's a phrase

like we might say, early to bed, early to rise.

And most people know that the next part is makes

a man healthy, wealthy, and wise, right? Because

that goes all the way back to Ben Franklin in

his letters or in Poor Rich's Almanac, whichever

one it was. So we kind of pick those things up.

But if you went to somewhere else in the world,

they wouldn't have a clue. You said early to

bed, they wouldn't know the next thing is early

to rise, right? They'd say early to bed makes

a man get more sleep or something. They wouldn't

recognize it. So we're having trouble recognizing

the quokialism. But what it literally basically

means is this. God will help her. And then that

last phrase basically means in good time or right

now. Right at the right time. Right away. Not

later. Not like you've got to pray and ask God

for a while. or wait for God to act, but God

will help right now. Okay? And so when morning

dawns, that means like at the first part of the

day, right? Right at the beginning. Right as

you start thinking about, okay, now I've got

these problems left over from yesterday. How

am I going to solve them? God is right there

to help. Just like that. Good translation, probably

difficult understanding from the original language.

Just a few verses more. The nations made an uproar.

The kingdoms tottered. He raised His voice, the

earth melted. So the people are making an uproar,

they're getting loud, and that causes others

maybe to get distracted or whatever, but the

people are getting loud. God raises His voice,

and the earth melted. And it's a picture of what

happens in people's hearts when God acts. And

so it's like, okay God, whatever you want God,

I'm yours God. And that's how we feel when God

acts. especially if we're not already going in

the right way. Verse 7. The Lord of hosts is

with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

So you see that the God of Jacob is talking about

the God of Israel. Jacob was renamed Israel,

you may remember. The Lord of hosts is with us.

He is the God of armies. He is the God of all

the great forces. He is the God of an army that

could crush any army that has ever existed. There's

one for Reddit. How about an army of angels versus

every army that ever existed? Right? The God

of Jacob is our stronghold. And we always make

a mistake when we think stronghold. We think

castles. That's a mistake. If it meant castle,

it would say castle. It says stronghold. Do you

know what a stronghold is? We're going to talk

about it briefly before we're through. Verse

8. Come behold the works of the Lord. Come behold

the works of the Lord. Look at what God has done.

And it is the Lord who has wrought desolations

in the earth. There are several nations that

you can go back and look at that God utterly

destroyed Himself without help. There are a couple

that have completely disappeared off the face

of the planet. Edom was one of those. God said,

because Edom is prideful and doesn't follow my

ways, basically, I'm going to destroy the entire

nation. Now the caves exist. They're these huge

castle caves in the sides of mountains that people

lived in. And they're there, but nobody even

knows what happened to all the people. They just

ceased to exist. The nation went away. They no

longer exist. Wiped from history. Their destruction

doesn't even exist in history. No one knows what

happened to them. And there are other cases of

that. Look at what God did to Egypt to get the

Israelites out, essentially. But really? Because

God could have just teleported them. And before

you say, I don't know about that, He did it with

Philip. If He can do it with one, He can do it

with a whole nation. God could have just done

it like this. But notice that those ten plagues

attack every god that they had. Systematically.

Proving that there is no other god except for

God. That is a lesson for all mankind. God has

wrought desolations in the earth. Verse 9. He

makes wars to cease to the end of the earth.

He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two.

He burns the chariots. Or your translation may

say the shields. Because the word there again

in the Hebrew is hard to translate. And it's

kind of hard to picture burning. shields, because

people think of them as metal, but a lot of shields

were actually wooden. And so it may be shields

that were burnt there. Chariots can work. You

burn a chariot, you wind up with the metal parts

left and the wood is gone. The floor was usually

wood. Anyway, he burns the implements of war.

And he does it with fire. And fire is always

a picture in Scripture of judgment, 99 % of the

time. And so God does it in God's judgment. In

verse 10, cease striving or be still and know

that I am God. I like both translations for two

different reasons. Cease striving or be still,

know that I am God. I will be exalted. God will

be lifted up among the nations. I will be exalted

in the earth. All people will know, and you might

be hearkening to the New Testament, right? Every

knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Not

just some. Not just people who are in for it.

Not just people who signed up for it. Not just

people who praised him during life or called

out to him and were saved. But all people's knees

will bow and every tongue confess. I will be

exalted among the nations. I will be exalted

in the earth. Verse 11. The Lord of hosts is

with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

And there is that word again. The Lord of hosts,

that means the master of all armies, the great

leader of the greatest army, is with us. And

the God of Jacob, that's our God, Yahweh, Creator

God, Jehovah Jireh, our God. The God of Jacob

is our stronghold. And again, that word stronghold.

Okay, so we've worked our way through the text.

There's a few things I want you to see in here.

A couple of them are pretty basic, but I think

they're hugely important for our day. The first

one is that according to the psalmist, clearly

and evidently, obviously, the psalmist is saying

that God is ready. But not only that he is ready,

and this is the part that people tend to miss,

he is accessible. You can have a relationship

with God. You can talk to God any time of the

day, all day long. You can sing praise songs

literally every moment that you are awake. And

I would submit to you, especially for those who

have practiced praise songs a lot, you can probably

dream them too. I've dreamed them a couple times

and I'm not even very good at singing praise

songs or haven't done that much of it. So you

can literally... Sing to God. Work for God. Talk

for God. Walk for God. Be with God. Have God

in your presence all day long. And that's the

last part of it then. It says, He is present

with us. This is the problem that I have. This

is where difficulty sets in. And it is this.

Aaron, God is present in this room. Are you fully

present in this room? Are we fully present? God

is present. Are we fully present? Are you thirsting

for the next drop of living water that comes

from the Lord? It's a rushing river. You don't

have to ration it. But God wants to give it.

God's trying to give it. What's your response?

He is present. If you are saved, the Holy Spirit

of God has come and lived in you. But are you

living around Him? What is your response? I had

a young lady once who was in a bind. Her family

situation had basically gone in bad ways. Situations

developed that were bad. And she called and she

said, I need a place to stay. And I'm like, well,

now I have the authority to say that you can

come and stay with us, but I'm going to talk

to my wife first because I'm no fool, right?

This is a young female. And I said, so I'll go

to my wife. And I said, okay. What do you think

about this? And she said, well, we have to make

some adjustments. You have to work this all out

and whatever. And guess what? Then she, this

young lady, came and stayed with us for a while.

And when she came and stayed with us for a while,

we adjusted our lives. We took steps so that,

for example, I was never alone with her. I was

never in a room alone with her. She and I did

not sit and watch TV together when no one else

was around. That literally never happened. I

was not in the same part of the house with her

unless my wife was there, my kids were there,

whatever, somebody that was old enough to know

what was going on. She sat at our dinner table

with us and our family. We adjusted our lives

because she came and lived with us. Are you adjusting

your life because the Holy Spirit of God has

come and lived with you? If so, then your mind

needs to be on God. At least during the preaching,

but is it during the preaching? At least during

the singing, but is it during the singing? Listen,

if you're working for God, if you set out to

work for God, then shouldn't your mind be on

God? At least some portion. I know you need some

portion of your conscious faculty to be involved

in what you're actually doing, but shouldn't

your presence be with God? Listen to me. If you're

not going to do it with God, don't ever turn

a wrench again. If you're not going to do it

with God, don't ever pick up your Bible again.

If you're not going to do it with God, don't

ever sit down to dinner with your family again.

Stop right here and don't waste the rest of your

breath on anything. If you're a follower of the

Lord Jesus Christ by your profession, you'd be

better off to literally blink out of existence

and live another second not recognizing the presence

of God in you. God is present. Oh, we want Him

as a refuge. We want Him as strength. We want

Him as an ever -present help in time of danger.

But we just don't want Him ever -present. You

can't put your God in a shed. You can't put Him

in the garage. You can't put Him in a tool chest.

You can't trap Him in a Bible. This is God. He

ain't small. Given His preference, He will occupy

every single, and I'm speaking in literal terms

here, inch of your being. Skin to skin. Hair

to bunions. He's got you all. And the problem

is, We act like we're not interested. When God

is working, He is ready, and He is accessible,

that's great. I want God ready to help me when

I need help. I want God ready to answer my prayers.

I want Him accessible. I don't want to say, okay,

God, I need some help here. And He says, you

know, you have reached the God prayer line. Please

press 2 if your needs are immediate. 2. I'm sorry.

No one is available to help you at this time.

No. God is ready and accessible. And we love

that. The problem is, God is present. He is ever

present with us. He's ready and accessible partly

because He's present. But are we present? Or

are we busy on our phones? Or are we busy playing

a game? Or are we busy listening to some other

kind of music? Are we busy trying to manipulate

our family and friends? He's ready, He's accessible,

and He is present with us. To be like Him, we

ought to be present. That's why it says, do all

things as if you do them unto the Lord. To be

safe in Him, we have to call on Him. And the

nice thing about calling on God is you already

know that God will answer. Whosoever calleth

upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So call

on God. Then put away all your distractions,

put away all your temptations, put away all the

things in your life that keep you from being

present with God. To demonstrate that God was

with us, He sent His only Son. If you are not

willing to be with God, then you must not recognize

that God sent Jesus to die for you. And you say,

no, no, I did that. I said words. I went through

a process. I have served when I didn't want to.

I have sweat and bled when I didn't want to.

So clearly I'm saved, right? That is not the

way it works. God is ever present. And if you

won't also be present with Him. In our young

marriage between my wife and I, We went back

and forth over intimacy and over spending time

together. And she felt like, and it was even

before we ever got married because we weren't

Christians at the time, and she felt like I didn't

spend enough time with her and so on. And this

is essentially what our relationship was like.

She loved me and wanted to spend time with me.

I said I loved her, but the truth is I had another

agenda. I wanted to do other things. I didn't

want to spend time with her. To the point that...

I would spend time with her on certain times.

I planned out certain times to do that, but I

wouldn't spend time with her the rest of the

time. When we were together, I would be doing

something different. She would sit with me. I'd

play on the computer while she's sitting with

me. And I had such a guilt and a feeling of realizing

that I was not reciprocating her love. I was

not giving back what she was giving to me. And

I began to despise her. You cannot serve two

masters. Are you present with God or not? Can

you put it away? Can you focus on just one thing?

I understand we have psychological and physical

needs. I understand some of us are very important

at our jobs, we're very important in our families,

we're very important in our own minds, that something

must interfere with whether or not God... He's

getting first place right now. God's saying,

hey, Dan. Hey, Dan. Hey, over here, Dan. Dan.

And I'm like, oh, but there's the waitress. I've

got to make sure I get my drink, right? No. If

you're present with God, then God is the number

one thing. He's ready, and He's accessible, and

for those who have called upon Him, He is present

with them. The question is, are you present with

Him? The second thing to see in here is that

God is clearly great above all. And the psalmist

gets pretty particular about this. He basically

leads us in verse 9 to see that it says, He makes

wars to cease, meaning God is above all wars.

It doesn't matter if some guy decides to go buy

an AK -47 or an AR -15 and then go shoot up a

school. God is present above that. God is more

powerful than that. If people would do what's

right and lead people to Jesus, if people would

do what's right and love and serve and create,

Something that would be God honoring. We'd have

less of that going on, but God is above all wars.

God is above all hearts. When he speaks, the

hearts melt. The people melt. God is above hearts.

I've been talking, I noticed this phenomenon

years and years ago. So I talked to a lady on

the phone this week. It just happened once this

week. I was having trouble getting someone to

act. And so this is not a believer, not a fellow

Christian, not a member of our church or anything.

And so they answered the phone and I said, this

is Pastor Dan. From New Heights Fellowship Baptist

Church. And they said, okay, how can I help you?

And they actually helped me. Now the person's

not a professing Christian, because I talked

to them a little bit after that. They're not

a professing Christian. They don't recognize

Jesus. But when I said I'm Pastor Dan, New Heights

Fellowship Baptist Church, they either caved

and did what they were supposed to do because

they're afraid of you, or they caved and did

what they're supposed to do because they're afraid

of God. And I'll tell you that I've seen it a

hundred times over the last 15 years that it's

people are afraid of God. People who don't know

God. People who don't call on the name of God.

When I was not a believer, I had a Bible that

had been given to me by my parents when I was

like six years old. It was in my room on the

shelf. A couple of times it wound up on the floor.

I never picked up my floor. Ever. I had a horizontal

filing system. You know what I mean? I could

find everything because nothing was on top of

anything else. Literally, there was not seven

inches on my floor. Not even big. When my room,

when foot size got to be about eight inches long,

then you say, there was not eight inches on my

floor. Because I literally would step in between

stuff. I had a horizontal filing system over

my whole floor. But when that Bible wound up

on the floor, I would cross the room and pick

it up and put it on the shelf. And I didn't know

God. The atheists roar and rage because they

don't know God and because they don't want to

know God. The arguments against God are about

not succumbing, not giving in, not submitting

to the one that everyone knows, every single

person on the face of the planet knows we will

submit to. You deal with an atheist and you start

to push holes in their theories. You start to

say, hey, think about this. What about this?

How can you know? I mean, atheism is not even,

it's an untenable position because you can't

know. Then say, okay, well, then I'm an agnostic.

I don't know. So I won't say I'm an atheist,

I know there isn't a God, but I'll say I'm an

agnostic. Because that's a tenable position,

because people don't know. Even Christians don't

know the full thing about God, right? People

recognize that there is a God, there has to be,

it's just logical, and they will be affected

by that. God is great above war, God is great

above hearts, and God is great above trials.

I have been in some very difficult situations

over my life. I won't say that they're as difficult

as some of the ones that you've been in. Each

person's life is different. I've never been to

war, and we have veterans in the room. I've never

been through basic training, and we have people

who have been through that in the room. I've

never left the military and tried to recover

a life after having, I've never been through

that, right? But I've been through some difficult

times, and this is what I know. Every time. Even

when I was stupid about it. Even when I wasn't

asking God for help. I can look back and see

that God was present. And He was in charge of

those circumstances. And He used them in the

worst of times to grow me into the person that

He was making me to become. God is above all

trials. And then... And I mentioned this one

before. God is above all chaos. Now it's funny

how this works because we start to see chaos

and we start to think nobody's in charge. Remember

the illustration that I gave about a room full

of kids? You sit back, you watch the room full

of kids and they are approaching chaos, right?

Now you watch. You watch them for about five

minutes and pretty soon you'll be able to figure

out who's in charge. Now their method of leadership

is not controlling or manipulating. But you'll

figure out who's in charge. Back in the day,

we were East Little Baptist Church and the youth

group was... growing and things were starting

to happen and there were people who had been

there they had been part of the youth group since

before they were youth right they had come up

through the ranks mike was one of those for example

and mike was a domineering personality he was

a strong personality in the youth group and he

affected the people all around him during that

time and people were interested to know what

he had to say and when you speak up and most

of the time you speak up it was biblical and

Sometimes he would speak up, it was just plain

loud. But there were things that were said, and

people would listen, right? And the point is,

you could tell, then when we started growing,

and we had like 25 people instead of 6 people,

now people were trying to figure out who was

the person, who was the leader. And you could

sit back and you could see little leaders developing

and affecting everyone around them. But God is

above all of that, right? He's in charge above

all of the chaos. and all that goes on. In Ephesians

Ephesians 3:20

chapter 3, verse 20, it says this, beginning

in verse 20, Ephesians 3, 20, it says, Now to

him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly

beyond all that we ask or think, according to

the power that works within us, to him be the

glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all

generations forever and ever. Amen. And then

it goes on to chapter 4, by the way, that is

not him closing out the letter. He might be closing

out the thought, and he's closing it out this

way. He says that God, who is able to do exceedingly

abundantly beyond all that we ask, wait for it,

or think, it's your best, most alert and discerning

moment, which you're at the top of your game,

hyped up on monsters or vitamin B or coffee or

apples or whatever your pep up of choice is,

at your best, most alert moment, when you're

activating your brain and you're remembering

all the training that you received and you've

got it all figured out, God is able to do exceedingly

above all that you can think. We're dreamers.

We imagine. But God can not only dream and imagine,

He can do. He is able to do more than that. He

is above all the chaos. The chaos results. Watch

the kids. They're a perfect example. The chaos

results because this person has his wants and

desires. This person has his wants and desires.

What's the number one fight that happens between

children? He took my toy. I was playing with

that. I sat it down just for one second and now

he has it. He took that out of my hand. It's

the number one thing. They fight over something

they want. Or he won't play with me all the time.

Adults play the same games. We're doing the same

thing. We're putting different titles on it.

We're coming up with different ways to look at

it. But the bottom line is, it's your wants and

desires not fulfilled. And then there's this

one over here not fulfilled, this one over here

not fulfilled, and this one over here not fulfilled.

And you start to go, ah, I'm getting depressed.

Because three of my top three things that I want

right now are not happening, right? The other

day, this broke, and then that broke, and then

that broke, and then that broke. Four things

in like three hours. I'm like, what is going

on? That's what we call chaos. When it looks

like nobody's in charge and things are going

every which direction. It looks like the white

water foam because everything's going which way

and you don't know what's going to happen. But

trust me, believe in God. He knows what's going

on. In the greatest of chaos, He is so far above.

You've heard that there's such a thing as predestination,

right? Where it's like God knows what we're going

to do before we do it. If God knows what we're

going to do before we do it, then do we really

have free will? That's what some people ask.

Do we really have free will because God knows

what we're going to do before we do it? Yes.

You know how? Because God knows all the possible

eventualities no matter what you choose. If there

are 75 different possibilities that you could

choose right now in this moment, you could choose

to go to the bathroom, you could choose to sit

in your chair, you could choose to put your feet

up or don't put your feet up, you could choose

to look at your phone, you could choose to play

a game, you could choose to watch a video, you

could put your mask up, you could put your mask

down. If there are all these possibilities, God

knows the outcome of All of those possibilities.

That's how he knows what will happen. Because

he knows it all. Not because he knows that you

will specifically choose red over green. But

he knows what will happen if you choose red,

and he knows what will happen if you choose green.

Like a master chess player, before any piece

on the board is moved, can think of all the possible

eventualities until checkmate. No matter what

piece you move, God is like that. He is above

all chaos. Able to do exceedingly more than you

can in your best moment think. Third thing to

see in there is that God will be our helper,

our shelter, our stronghold. God will be our

helper, our shelter, our stronghold. He is an

ever -present help in time of danger. It's time

we talk about that word stronghold because people

often misunderstand it. A stronghold is not a

castle. Most strongholds, if you look over history,

were a walled -off area. Let me ask you this.

Perfect example. You know the stories of Robin

Hood, right? Remember the stories of Robin Hood?

They're probably just legends, but stories of

Robin Hood. What was Robin Hood's stronghold?

Sherwood Forest. Why didn't the sheriff snuff

him out, finish him once and for all? Because

every time the sheriff would close in on him,

he would escape to Sherwood Forest. And they

knew the ways of Sherwood Forest. They knew the

paths and the trails and the bushes and where

to hide and where to be not seen and where to

ambush from. And the sheriff and his men did

not. Now you understand what a stronghold is.

A stronghold is not a castle. It is not something

that sits around you and protects you. You've

heard the rumors now, whether it winds up being

true for sure or not, that they're going to build

walls around the Capitol buildings in D .C. We

have a wall that has stretched the majority of

our southern border because we had invaders.

We had issues that we're dealing with, and that

was the choice of how government decided to deal

with it. And they put a wall around the Capitol

buildings so that people can't approach. close

enough to cause danger or damage to the building,

right? That's a castle, not a stronghold. A stronghold

is a place that you retreat to when you are under

threat to rally, resupply, retrain, rebuild,

and ultimately what? Attack. To attack. And your

stronghold supplies your attack. We watched the

movie The Princess Bride at my house a couple

nights ago. I've seen that movie now about probably

25 times. I can quote a lot of the lines. I really

enjoy it. If you've never seen it, I recommend

it. It's just for fun. It's nothing too crazy.

It is a little crazy, but it's just for fun.

They come out of the fire swamp. And they're

accosted by the prince and his guards. And he

says, but how will you take us? We now know the

secrets of the fire swamp. We can retreat back

into the fire swamp and you'll never get us out.

We can stay there for as long as we need. So

what was the fire swamp? A stronghold. That's

what he's talking about. We now have a stronghold

that you cannot take from us except what happened.

They surrounded them and cut them off from going

back into the fire swamp. They took away their

stronghold. And this is what Christians are doing.

We're taking away our own stronghold. We listen

to the world. We listen to the arguments of the

world. We let them make us afraid. We let them

make us think that we cannot retreat into God.

We let them make us think that God will not protect

us and provide for us and empower us and give

us purpose. And He will do all of those things.

God is our stronghold and ever -present help

in time of danger. And when you face the biggest

enemy, which is probably going to be spiritual,

but the biggest enemy that you have ever faced,

God is right there with you if you're a follower

of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have accepted

Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you're living

with Him, then He is living with you. Are you

present? Some years ago, I went to a sporting

event. There's a guy who lived down the street.

We had off and on frictions with him. While I

was at the sporting event, he was with us. The

sporting event was out at UT. As we went to UT,

we had to park in a place we didn't recognize

and walk down a winding path that we didn't recognize

up through a dark area that we didn't know about

and there was no lights. I wasn't armed and I

was little. I've never been all that good at

fighting. I've just been good at getting beat

up pretty much. I'm just really good at getting

beat up. I persist to the point that they hurt

themselves trying to beat me up. I don't want

to do that now because I'll probably break, but

that's the way I did it back then. I'm walking

through this dark area and guess what? I wasn't

afraid. You know why I wasn't afraid? Because

the guy that was with me was 6 '5", 6 '6", and

4 '25". And had won the division championships

playing football with a broken arm. I wasn't

afraid in the dark. I wasn't afraid in a path

I didn't know. I wasn't afraid in a place I didn't

think I was going to have to go. Because the

guy that was with me made me feel like I could

be okay. That's who God is. If you have not felt

that sensation of going, okay, I'm facing something

that I may not be able to overcome. This may

not go the way I want. Everything could be melting,

falling apart. It could all die right here. And

God inside you said, that's okay. I got this.

Then you probably don't know the God of heaven.

You probably have not had a relationship with

God. Either that or you've had a very sheltered

existence. And God does shelter us daily so that

we don't even recognize those things. I've had

a number of times in my life where somebody was

coming at me hot and heavy, and I would normally

be terrified. I would want to run. And then I

get to the end of it, and I'm like, that was

really weird. I wasn't afraid. Why wasn't I afraid?

It wasn't that I didn't sweat or I didn't get

worked up, but I wasn't terrified to the point

of inaction. And that's who I used to be before

I got saved. Like my boss from Pizza Hut, the

one that ultimately fired me, said, you know

what your problem is? You're not afraid of me.

And I was like... It took me aback because I'm

like, wait a minute, I'm not. That's so weird

because I've been like afraid of everybody all

my life. And now I'm a Christian and I've been

a Christian only for a little while. And I'm

not afraid finally. God will be our helper. He

will be our shelter and he will be our stronghold.

But a stronghold is a very specific thing. It

is that which protects you and empowers you and

gives you a place to be safe so that you can

strike out and take territory for the one who

built the stronghold, which is God. In this case,

God is the stronghold. So you can retreat into

God when things get really dark and you go, Oh,

God, help me! And God will help you. But after

you get done going, Oh, God, help me! You don't

get to one hour later or one day later kind of

forget about God, not be present and spend more

time on electronics than with God. You don't

get to do that. Because if you're not present,

maybe He's not present. And if He's not present,

then when you go, Oh God, help me! Where is He?

Now He may just come calling. Especially if you

call in the name of Jesus. He might come right

then. But He also might say, Yeah, you know,

I was with you. You've heard of the footprints

poem? Spoil the ending for you if you haven't

ever heard of it. Those times when there's only

one set of footsteps in the sand, that's not

me leaving you, that's me carrying you. I submit

to you that that was a pretty good illustration

of the Christian walk. But in my experience,

there's another time. It's a time when there's

only one set of footprints in the sand because

that's me leaving God. And we've got to stop.

Leaving God. When you retreat into God's stronghold

and you know you need God's help, when you come

out of there, you have to come out more ready

to serve, more ready to fight, more ready to

voice God's truths to anyone who will listen.

So there were three things I wanted you to see

in the text and we've seen them now. Number one,

God is ready, accessible, and present with us

and therefore we ought to be present with Him.

Number two, God is great above all. War, hurts,

trials, even chaos. Number three, God will be

our helper, our shelter, and our stronghold,

which is that place that we go for protection

and safety and building and then launch our attacks

back from to do God's will and advance the kingdom

of God. That's what a stronghold is. So then

we come to the conclusion. And the psalmist says

it this way. He says, cease striving and know

that I am God. Cease striving. Well, the problem

with striving is we think that means cease working,

but it doesn't mean that, right? Striving is

not working. Striving is working that's really

hard, pushing. It's more difficult than work,

more difficult than what we were created for.

I tell Ariana, she gets in the car and she says,

I can't buckle my seatbelt. I can't do it. I

can't do it. So hard. And I said, listen, there's

something you need to learn. If it's that hard,

you're probably not doing it right. And she said,

what am I not doing right? And I look back there

and she's like, the buckle's not even facing

the right direction. I'm like, it's not facing

the right direction. Turn around. She turned

around, click, and it goes. That's striving.

You're striving to do what you think is right.

You're striving to do what you should do. You're

striving to make the world. What you want it

to be. Striving to figure out this problem. Striving

to overcome this difficulty. Striving to add

something to the kingdom. Striving to add something

to God. Striving to add something to yourself.

Striving to become a better person. Striving,

striving, striving. All striving in ways that

are too hard because they are not the ways that

God has ordained. Cease striving. Cut it out.

Knock it off. Really, He's with you. God is with

you. Stop the striving. We also think of striving

as fighting. Wrestling. Physical fighting. Fighting

with somebody. It's not that. Because being still

doesn't stop a fight. Somebody comes after you,

that's not going to stop a fight. You still got

to fight. If you got to fight, you got to fight

to protect your family. You might have to fight

to survive. Somebody might come after you with

a knife or a gun. You might have to defend yourself.

You have to do so in a godly way, but it's not

about stopping fighting. It's about stopping

trying to make something that is not out of God,

out of something that is completely God. Stop

trying to fix it. Trust God's plan. Fear not.

I want you to think for a moment about the return

of the prodigal son. I'm not going to go there

and read it in the interest of time. It's in

Luke 15, 11 -32. You can read it later for yourself

if you want. But the prodigal son, basically,

he's the guy who goes off and squanders all of

his inheritance and winds up feeding the pigs.

And he says, Ma, the servants in my father's

household are doing better than I am. You know

what happened there, by the way? God was present

with him. And then he chose not to be present

with God. And he went off and he said, give me

my inheritance now. And he lived and squandered

his inheritance. He wound up with nothing, feeding

the pigs. And he said, the servants in my father's

house do better than I do. I'm going to go back

and ask him to at least make me a servant. Then

as he comes back, the father sees him coming

because he was waiting on the porch. God was

waiting for him to come back. God was still present,

but he left him. He left him there. He sees him

coming and he runs out and he grabs him. He falls

on him, kisses his neck. And then he puts a robe

on him, a ring on him, and sandals on his feet

and kills a fatted calf. And those four things

represent what God does to anybody. If you'll

come back to God, he'll give you power, he'll

give you purpose, he'll give you protection,

and he'll give you provision. It's four Ps, fairly

easy to remember. Power, purpose, protection,

and provision. That's what God does when the

prodigal son returns home. Now you could be not

saved and come into God for the first time. It's

going to be power, protection, purpose, and provision.

You could be saved and you left God, you've not

been present with God, you come back to him,

it's going to be power, purpose, protection,

and provision. If you want to do them in a different

order, go for it. God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble. And he says,

cease your striving and know that I am God. But

it's interesting because according to this text,

there are some people who are striving very specifically

to overcome or get away from God. It says the

nations roar. Remember that? The nations made

an uproar. And we talked about how that shakes

people and it makes people not want to look at

God. Because the nations are louder than God.

There's chaos. There's struggle. There's difficulty.

But they're not actually louder than God, are

they? Because when God roars, all the world melts.

Even those who are roaring in God's face. They

roar, God roars back, and they melt. For all

your striving, you can make God no holier than

he is. You can make him no more just than he

is. You can make him no more powerful than he

is. You can make him no more wonderful than he

is. You can make him no more God than he is.

And you cannot make the kingdom of God any more

the kingdom of God than it already is. You cannot

do it. Cease your striving. Rather, trust in

the Lord who is ready and accessible and present

with us. And fear not. God is great above all

war. Hurts, trials, and even chaos. And God will

be our helper and our shelter and our stronghold.

And from that stronghold, we will launch out

and win souls. We will launch out and serve God.

We will win. The nations roar. They roar because

they want to be like God. They roar because they

want to intimidate those who do follow God. They

roar because out of the interest of that, maybe

you'll leave God and not be present with Him.

But they cannot out -shout God, no matter how

hard they try. And they may shout at the top

of their lungs, and they may shout in unison.

But if God should just whisper, their souls will

leap at the possibility of His presence, just

as mine does. He will not. Be outdone. As the

times unfold, we may see more and more chaos.

Don't focus on it. In fact, you really don't

even have to do anything about it. We have a

job to do. Share Jesus with anybody who will

listen. Come out of the stronghold. Give more,

serve more, work more, live more. What happens,

and it's the greatest tragedy of all things to

some people, is they join the roar. They join

the shouting. Even as Christians, they join the

shouting, the striving. And that is not where

we belong. We have peace because we know our

God is readily accessible and present. He is

great above all. And He will be our helper and

our stronghold. So no matter how bad it gets,

if you need to retreat into the Lord, realize

that it is for a time of refreshing. It is for

a time of building strength and adding skill.

It is for a time of learning more about who He

is and how He's above you in this situation.

You cannot out -shout God. The world cannot out

-shout God. God loves you. God loves us. And

He is our ever -present help in times of trouble

and our stronghold from which to fight. We pray

for you briefly and then we'll have a closing

hymn of invitation.